Our health care HMO primary care doctors and nurses won’t see us if we have a fever. Our only choice is a video appointment or urgent care/ER.
Is this typical since Covid or are we just “lucky”?
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Our primary care doctors are sending most sick visits to urgent care. They mostly only do maintenance & yearly check ups now. 
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Ours too! And urgent care can mean a wait of hours and hours!
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My PCP is really in charge of my overall health needs. When I am done with specialist care, she continues to prescribe whatever the specialist indicated. It can take some time to schedule a face-to-face visit but if I message her office and she’s not on vacation, they will squeeze me in at least for a video visit. And I can always schedule a same-day virtual urgent care visit with an MD/DO, usually an ER specialist.
The urgent care places around here usually don’t have a wait. They are staffed by PAs and NPs.
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Perhaps your insurance has Tel-a-Doc service. I personally think its better than urgent care (you aren’t spreading germs or picking them up) if you have a clue as to what your problem may be (flu, minor ailments etc.). Fill in the history forms on-line, brief description of what you need/symptoms. Doc calls yoQu back on your phone (mine was within 15 min), you tell him/her your symptoms etc, ask/answer questions and they prescribe something if applicable called into your neighborhood pharmacy. Quick, easy, cheaper than urgent care with no wait or travel. Of course won’t work for a broken arm or stitches but great for most everything else.
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I actually don’t mind at all going to urgent care for minor things like fever, rash, congestion, ear aches…I can get seen quicker than I’ll ever get in to my PCP and myChart info is easily shared with PCP. I had to use an urgent care twice in the last month because of weekend needs and it was quick and easy and I felt I received good care. We have oodles of choices for urgent care.
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I’ve not experienced that here (yet?).
I haven’t had a fever in quite awhile. Seeing my PCP is challenging and tough to schedule. I have a lot better chance of seeing my lung doc—in person or virtually or his NP/PA. I have so far only been to urgent care for broken bones and once for an infection. D went to urgent care once for an infection as well and was satisfied with testing and care received there.
I guess my main issue is that my primary doctor won’t actually see me when I’m sick. And that urgent care around here can take forever.
My doctor stopped doing telehealth after the covid vaccines became wide spread.
Personally I would find a new physician. No way would I want to be sent to urgent care for a fever/infection.
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There was no class in med school on how to do a physical exam via telehealth. Get it? This is not proper medical care.
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I am glad I have my lung doc and my primary doc working together. It’s much easier for me to have a last minute visit to my lung doc for any infection—they will fit me into their packed schedule.
I have no clue what my doctor’s policy is. I have been able to schedule same day appointments for urgent issues other than fevers, although it’s always with one of her PAs or NPs (I’m fine with that). When my previous PCP’s office became associated with an urgent care practice, they pushed us to use the urgent care for illnesses. That’s part of why I found a new PCP.
I have injured my foot twice in the past couple years, and I knew that I would need X-rays both times. In those cases, I went straight to the urgent care associated with my doctor’s preferred hospital. I figured my doctor’s office would have to send me to the hospital for X-rays, and I knew that the urgent care would do them there & send them to the hospital for a radiologist’s read. It was faster to do that. The urgent care takes online reservations, and I have not had to wait long.
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I went to urgent care about a month ago after I pretty much diagnosed myself. My primary (who is a PA) is in a practice with no same day visits. I waited maybe 5 minutes and was seen by a PA which confirmed my diagnosis and sent in a prescription. I then made a follow up appointment with my primary, who referred me for further testing to rule out other issues. Works for me (and I had a fever (102.5) which was a little concerning for a swelling issue (I had sent a picture to my dad who is in PT school and she diagnosed me and urged me to not just take 4 year old expired antibiotics (I do not like going to the doctor).
Our primary clinic does not have appointments for months out. PCPs seem to provide annual exams and to deal with chronic illnesses. So urgent care or ER are the only options if something needs to be checked out urgently. The urgent care nearest to us is very efficient and is staffed by rotating staff from the same hospital associated practice. That said, my insurance charges double copay for urgent care…
When I’ve gone to urgent care lately, it has cost me a lot of money. As much as the ER. 
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Make sure your insurance covers that video visit. I had a pre-colonoscopy video visit that was required by the provider, and my insurance informed me that they did not cover video or phone visits. I was shocked, because I have extremely good insurance that covers just about everything. They said they stopped covering that a few years after Covid. Had I known, I would have insisted upon an in person visit.
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We can also pre-register in advance for urgent care though I always forget to. Depending on time of day they can be relatively fast and the providers are the same as at the hospital ER (rotating). We had no urgent care here for years so I’m still grateful every time. When I took my 87 year old mom they let us sit in the car and texted us when it was her turn so she didn’t have to sit with everyone in the waiting room. I don’t think I’ve ever waited more than an hour and usually less and it’s only an office visit co-pay rather than an ER copay ($20 vs $150). My experiences have all been relatively positive and much easier than trying to get a same day PCP visit (though my still offers them I believe).
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I switched from a GP primary care to an Internal Medicine doc for my primary care - she is awesome! Takes everything I say seriously and actually seems to think I know what I’m talking about - like I’m not making stuff up. She’s younger than me which means she’ll be around for a while (I hope since a lot of these orgs are merging and getting acquired by bigger orgs). Sadly my gastro doctor retired and the replacement doc I got from his org looks 12 and was paying more attention to his cell phone and smiling while I was going under w/ propofol - pretty sure he was watching cat videos on TikTok w/that smile on his face.
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Lots of hospitals in Chicago are pushing for tele health. Medicine is changing. Urgi cares for lower extremity problems are a waste of money. Lots of people wasting their money and getting misdiagnosed.